Day 10: Country club skiing.
At least today was as close as you'll come to that without the LCC road being closed. I have never, ever seen Alta that deserted on a Saturday. Honestly, there was no one there. On a trip out the High T through Piss Pass into Greeley Bowl around 10 a.m. as far as I could see in any direction -- from Gunsight around to Greeley Hill -- I was the only one there. No one else. No one traversing on the ridgeline toward High Boy or Eagle's Nest. No one head for North Rustler. No one.
There was evidence, however, that some locals had been hard at work in Greeley Bowl:
We headed up Wildcat:
and through the Keyhole, which was honestly the run of the day. Unlike last year early season, our early wet snow this season has stuck to everything. The meadows above the choke were barely tracked and fluffy, and the wall to skier's right of the chute is actually fully covered this season and skiable. In fact as we sat there taking in the view...
...a lone skier came through, skiing right down the aforementioned wall:
You may recall that Christmas week last year Keyhole instead looked like this:
Snowbird was far busier than Alta, we surmised 3-4x as many skiers per acre today. The usual suspect busy spots -- Big Emma, Bassackwards, etc. -- were precisely that, but we found ways to get away from everyone. One such option was in Mineral Basin:
We headed out over Hilary Step to the Bookends and Sunday Cliffs in Mineral Basin, which like Keyhole was boot top untracked. I can't believe no one was skiing out there.
Another was STH off Gad 2. What's that? You heard that Gad 2 wasn't running? Precisely.
Clouds and summit winds moved in, making already flat light even flatter. The Tram's upwind cabin eased past Tower 4. Road to Provo was a whiteout. It tried to snow on the upper mountain. Down low, however, it remained cloudy but warm and still.
After lunch at the Rendezvous, we headed back up the Tram and hiked along the Peruvian ridgeline to the High Baldy Traverse to return to Alta. The traverse itself has filled in a bit and is in considerably better shape than it was last weekend. And this time the Armpit gate back into Alta was open.
Light improved just as we dropped into Armpit.
I called it a day at 3 pm, the latest I've skied thus far this season.
At least today was as close as you'll come to that without the LCC road being closed. I have never, ever seen Alta that deserted on a Saturday. Honestly, there was no one there. On a trip out the High T through Piss Pass into Greeley Bowl around 10 a.m. as far as I could see in any direction -- from Gunsight around to Greeley Hill -- I was the only one there. No one else. No one traversing on the ridgeline toward High Boy or Eagle's Nest. No one head for North Rustler. No one.
There was evidence, however, that some locals had been hard at work in Greeley Bowl:
We headed up Wildcat:
and through the Keyhole, which was honestly the run of the day. Unlike last year early season, our early wet snow this season has stuck to everything. The meadows above the choke were barely tracked and fluffy, and the wall to skier's right of the chute is actually fully covered this season and skiable. In fact as we sat there taking in the view...
...a lone skier came through, skiing right down the aforementioned wall:
You may recall that Christmas week last year Keyhole instead looked like this:
Snowbird was far busier than Alta, we surmised 3-4x as many skiers per acre today. The usual suspect busy spots -- Big Emma, Bassackwards, etc. -- were precisely that, but we found ways to get away from everyone. One such option was in Mineral Basin:
We headed out over Hilary Step to the Bookends and Sunday Cliffs in Mineral Basin, which like Keyhole was boot top untracked. I can't believe no one was skiing out there.
Another was STH off Gad 2. What's that? You heard that Gad 2 wasn't running? Precisely.
Clouds and summit winds moved in, making already flat light even flatter. The Tram's upwind cabin eased past Tower 4. Road to Provo was a whiteout. It tried to snow on the upper mountain. Down low, however, it remained cloudy but warm and still.
After lunch at the Rendezvous, we headed back up the Tram and hiked along the Peruvian ridgeline to the High Baldy Traverse to return to Alta. The traverse itself has filled in a bit and is in considerably better shape than it was last weekend. And this time the Armpit gate back into Alta was open.
Light improved just as we dropped into Armpit.
I called it a day at 3 pm, the latest I've skied thus far this season.